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Legislation and More Legislation

Software Patents

The proposed European Union directive on the patentability
of computer-implemented inventions (software patents
directive) is still in more or less the same limbo it was in
when last discussed here in November. As mentioned in
November, Poland has expressed serious reservations about
the proposed measures and
has blocked the European Council of Ministers
from adopting the relatively pro-patent proposal
currently before it. This would have have occurred, for
reasons of expediency, at a
meeting of the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Tom Chance, writing at LWN,
has given
a clear and useful overview
of how these developments fit within the decision making
structure of the EU. He also presents a neat précis
of the realpolitik which will likely lead to Poland shelving
its objections in order to achieve agreement on matters
closer to its economic self-interest. Should this happen,
meaning the measure is adopted by the Council, it could
again be rejected by a Parliament keen to reinstate its
original amendments. However, under the relevant voting
rules this would require two thirds of all MEPs to vote
accordingly. This is unlikely to occur.

As we approach the time when decisions on the future of this
directive will be made, many individuals and organisations
are attempting to raise their political representatives'
awareness of these matters. Although it is valuable in this
process to achieve some understanding of the issues and
consequences of the proposed policy, it is perhaps even more
useful to impress on elected representatives that they will
be called to account in their own countries for their voting
and policy in Europe.

Linux Kernel

As of Christmas Eve 2004, the latest version of the stable
2.6.x series of
Linux Kernels is
2.6.10.
The new year brought an update to the older 2.4 series,
which has now been updated to version
2.4.29.

Distro News

Debian

The
Debian Project
has announced the release of the fourth update for the
current stable release of their GNU/Linux distribution.
Debian Woody GNU/Linux 3.0, (r4), released on January
1st 2005, comprises for the most part a collection of
security fixes accumulated (and addressed) over the past
months since the r3 release in October.

Knoppix

Screenshot tour
of
Games Knoppix, a Knoppix variant that comes loaded with
a selection of some of the best games available for
GNU/Linux, all on a live, bootable, CD.
There is a review of this distribution
at Linux.com.

LFS

The Linux From Scratch
2nd edition book is currently
on pre-order sale. This means you can order this book
for USD13.99, whereas in a couple of weeks when it starts
to ship it will be available at USD19.99.

Linux From Scratch provides a set of instructions allowing
you to build your GNU/Linux system entirely from source.
Even if you do not plan to use such a system, it is an
interesting exercise, and this book could provide useful
information and background to many non LFS uses.

Ubuntu

Looking towards the next release of this distribution,
it has been announced
that the first milestone live-CD preview of the next Ubuntu
release (Hoary Hedgehog) has been let loose.

Xandros

NewsForge has
reviewed
Xandros Desktop OS 3 Deluxe Edition.
This Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution aims to provide a
comfortable and familiar experience to users more accustomed
to the use of GUI environments, and perhaps new to GNU/Linux.

IBM

Acrobat

Adobe has
released
version 7 of its
Acrobat software
for GNU/Linux.
The stand-alone Acrobat Reader has also
been updated to version 7.0, and this update too is
available for GNU/Linux as a no-cost download.

Originally hailing from Ireland, Michael is currently living in Baden,
Switzerland. There he works with ABB Corporate Research as a
Marie-Curie fellow, developing software for the simulation and design
of electrical power-systems equipment.

Before this, Michael worked as a lecturer in the Department of
Mechanical Engineering, University College Dublin; the same
institution that awarded him his PhD. The topic of this PhD research
was the use of Lamb waves in nondestructive testing. GNU/Linux has
been very useful in his past work, and Michael has a strong interest
in applying free software solutions to other problems in engineering.